Saturday, December 23, 2006

Something for Everyone This Christmas

Hollywood is hanging out a number of stockings as Christmas weekend arrives. Among the new movies, broad appeal is the name of the game. Three of the five wide releases this frame carry a PG rating as studios look to lure nice audiences rather than naughty ones.

20th Century Fox's "Night at the Museum," starring Ben Stiller, looks most likely to dominate the weekend. Two sports-themed movies -- MGM's "Rocky Balboa," which bowed Wednesday, and Warner Bros. Pictures' "We Are Marshall," based on the 1970 Marshall football team tragedy -- also are looking to claim their share of the till. "Rocky" already won its first round, grossing an estimated $6.2 million Wednesday to easily claim the title of top-grossing film for the day.

Universal Pictures' Robert De Niro-directed spy movie "The Good Shepherd" is courting the adult audience.With Christmas Eve falling on Sunday, that night will be a quiet one at the box office, making prospective weekend totals difficult to predict. On Christmas Day, there are two other developments that will further complicate holiday weekend estimates.

On that day, MGM will target disaffected teens and holiday scrooges as it opens "Black Christmas," a horror flick from the Weinstein Co. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures will expand "Dreamgirls," which it co-produced with DreamWorks, to 852 theaters. The Bill Condon-directed musical has performed strongly in special "roadshow" engagements that launched in Los Angeles and New York. The combined opening of "Black Christmas" and the wide expansion of "Dreamgirls" could affect the Monday grosses of the four wide releases bowing this week.

1 comment:

I'm just a sucker for holiday movies, so I've already seen Night at the Museum and Rocky Balboa .. while they were both good, I was surprised to find Night at the Museum the superior flick .. it's almost as smart as it is laugh-out-loud funny